Tabbed browsing and blogs that autoplay music don’t mix at all, especially when I’m trying to listen to something else. Why, bloggers, WHY. #
Mind you, one blog was playing a nice acoustic version of Radiohead’s Creep, so I’ll let that one live. For now. #
Cha mhisde sgeul mhath aithris da uair. A good tale is [...]
Categories: Miscellaneous
The death of her husband at noon on the 2nd of June 1937 was a harsh blow to my great-grandmother, Susan MacLeod. But if she thought that day couldn’t possibly get any worse, she was wrong. After the funeral, Father MacGillivray showed up at the door of her small apartment on Intercolonial Street with two [...]
Categories: Heritage
Tagged: Canada, Cape Breton, Duncan MacLeod, English, family, Gaelic, genealogy, history, language, migration, names, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, photos
My great-grandfather, John Rory MacLeod, was born in July 1889 in the area of Cape Breton island which contains the small communities of Glencoe and Upper Southwest Mabou. (There are several distinct places up there associated with my family, such as Glencoe Mills, MacLeod Settlement and Upper Southwest Mabou, but my grandfather always refers to [...]
Categories: Heritage
Tagged: Canada, Cape Breton, Duncan MacLeod, English, family, Gaelic, genealogy, history, language, migration, names, Nova Scotia, photos, Scotland
I like Sunday nights, even though they’re full of Monday morning. #
It’s interesting that we still use something as outdated as race to determine who’s mixed. It’s silly. I mean, I’m mixed. So are you. #
Malays & Chinese calling each other different ‘races’ reminds me of how English people said that of the Irish ages [...]
Categories: Miscellaneous
Sometimes I think the only thing keeping Msians from killing one another is a non-nuke version of the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction #
In my kids’ family history there’s a story abt a guy who fell in love with a Muslim girl & converted to get married. It wasn’t me. #
51% of respondents in a [...]
Categories: Miscellaneous
With all the family history stuff I write here in my blog, one might begin to wonder why I don’t write about my wife’s family history. Well unfortunately genealogy is a very difficult endeavour here in Malaysia. A lack of accessible records (and in many cases a lack of records, period) means you’re forced to [...]
Categories: Heritage
Tagged: family, genealogy, history, immigration, in-laws, Indonesia, Islam, Java, Javanese, language, names, photos, Religion
RT @netraKL RT @TheNutGraph: Looking back, moving forward by Marina Mahathir. http://bit.ly/6dxmaD #
Bad blood between Israel, Palestine & Jordan affects two-thousand-year-old documents: http://bit.ly/8zK2AK #
Minarets are not an essential part of Islam | Taj Hargey - Times Online http://bit.ly/7ZQja8 #
A2 kicked one of Leen’s patients in the head today. I tell ya, kids can get [...]
Categories: Miscellaneous
When I logged into Facebook today I noticed a whole bunch of people on my list were posting one-word status updates, all colours. Then I noticed only the ladies were doing it. Then I noticed guys leaving comments asking them what it was about, and the ladies were almost all at least a little cryptic [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: cancer, links, Malaysia, testicular cancer
One of the biggest problems most people will face when researching their family history is that as they go back through the generations they will find fewer and fewer women. The women were there, of course; after all, they make up fully half of anyone’s genealogy. But in days gone by, women were commonly ignored [...]
Categories: Heritage
Tagged: Acadians, Cape Breton, family, France, French, genealogy, history, immigration, language, links, Martel, names, Nova Scotia, Paris
Configured my blog to publish a weekly twitter update & it made a post with every update (excluding replies) from 2009. Hmmm #
I smell burnt toast. Since I’m not epileptic & there’s no doctor poking things into my brain, I’ll assume someone somewhere just burnt toast #
Spent New Year’s Eve in Muar. Our cat Mimi [...]
Categories: Miscellaneous
A few pages into Alistair MacLeod’s 1976 short story The Closing Down of Summer there’s a brief description of moonshine the main characters were drinking on a beach on the west coast of Cape Breton:
It is the purest of moonshine made by our relatives back in the hills and is impossible to buy. It comes [...]
Categories: Heritage
Tagged: books, Canada, Cape Breton, Duncan MacLeod, family, Gaelic, genealogy, history, names, Nova Scotia
Highway Robbery: Auto Repossession in Malaysia 2
Wednesday was turning out to be a pretty good day: I had a very smooth, efficient visit to Immigration in Shah Alam; I got paid; I got an awesome, free lunch, not to mention great company and conversation. Yes, it was shaping up to be a pretty good day. I did some banking, paid some [...]
Categories: Commentary, Life
Tagged: links, Malaysia